Good-Look­ing Value

Volk­swa­gen’s 2019 Jetta and At­las score big with con­sumers

Volk­swa­gen’s 2019 mod­els are full of sur­prises, be­gin­ning with the price point of the Jetta. The sleek Jetta S sedan—be­lieve it or not—has come on the mar­ket with an MSRP of $18,545 for a man­ual and $19,345 for au­to­matic. It’s priced lower than the out­go­ing car (the 2018 au­to­matic started at $19,645), de­spite hav­ing more stan­dard equip­ment. Up­graded mod­els are slightly higher with the R-Line start­ing at $22,995 and the SEL Premium at $26,945.

Be­sides value, the Jetta is all about aero­dy­nam­ics. From early vir­tual mod­el­ing, ev­ery crease and curve was stud­ied for ways to re­duce drag. The car’s air cur­tain de­sign in the front bumper, lower tur­bu­lence over the wheels and sculpted un­der­body pan­els were all taken into con­sid­er­a­tion. The re­sult is a 7th-gen­er­a­tion re­design for the Amer­i­can mar­ket. Vis­ually its fast-slop­ing roofline cre­ates a sportier, coupe-like pro­file.

Un­der the hood, the Jetta has a 1.4-liter 4-cylin­der tur­bocharged en­gine de­signed for fuel ef­fi­ciency with a clutch­driven air con­di­tioner and a more ef­fi­cient gen­er­a­tor. Driv­ers can ex­pect to get 30 miles per gal­lon in the city and a whop­ping 40 on the high­way.

FOR THE SUV DRIVER

If you’re in the mar­ket for some­thing larger, then con­sider the 2019 At­las. It’s the new­est and big­gest mem­ber of the Volk­swa­gen lineup. A spa­cious seven-pas­sen­ger mid­size SUV, the At­las starts at $30,895 for the S model. Its mod­ern and

De­signed with the fam­ily and road trip­ping in mind, the At­las driver con­trols are po­si­tioned for op­ti­mal er­gonomics and us­abil­ity, and the seat po­si­tion, shifter height and spac­ing be­tween the ped­als are fine-tuned for driver com­fort whether a short trip to soc­cer prac­tice or a long haul to grandma’s house. When you pile the kids in the back, you’ll ap­pre­ci­ate its three-row seat­ing with am­ple head and leg room as well as the in­no­va­tive fold­ing mech­a­nism for the se­cond row, which of­fers im­proved en­try and exit space on both sides by en­abling the se­cond-row bench to tilt and slide for­ward, even with child seats in place.

En­gine op­tions in­clude the four-cylin­der TSI turbo and the VR6; both send their power through an eight-speed au­to­matic trans­mis­sion to help max­i­mize ef­fi­ciency.

Some 2019 ad­di­tions that you’ll ap­pre­ci­ate in­clude the au­to­matic head­lights, rain-sens­ing wipers and heated side mir­rors. Driver as­sis­tance and in­no­va­tion fea­tures such as front as­sist, blind spot mon­i­tor and rear traf­fic alert are now stan­dard on all At­las mod­els. If your fam­ily tows re­cre­ational toys from Jet Skis to boats, con­sider a VR6 model with a fac­tory-in­stalled hitch de­signed to tow up to 5,000 pounds.

De­signed with the fam­ily and road trip­ping in mind, the At­las driver con­trols are po­si­tioned for op­ti­mal er­gonomics and us­abil­ity.

Clock­wise from top: The 2019 Jetta R-Line in Tor­nado Red; the 2019 Jetta SEL Premium; the clean de­sign of the Jetta’s dash­board

From top: The 2019 At­las is the big­gest mem­ber of the V olk­swa­gen fam­ily; the op­tional hands-free power lift­gate fea­ture of this mid-size SUV al­lows you to kick your foot un­der the rear bumper to open the hatch.